Army denies frenzy of destruction in Jenin

Israel gave its fullest account of its soldiers' conduct in the West Bank town of Jenin, admitting 10% of the buildings in the city's refugee camp had been levelled during the fighting, but denying in the strongest terms that it had overseen a "massacre".

Conceding that more than 100 houses and buildings in a camp of 1,100 homes had been razed, a senior Israeli officer told journalists that while the Israeli defence forces were "not proud" of the level of destruction in the camp, it had been justified by military necessity.

Palestinian figures, including the senior negotiator and cabinet member, Saeb Erekat, have described the loss of life in Jenin as a "massacre" and a "war crime". Israel has denied the charge.

The conflicting accounts of the fighting over Jenin have turned into a major international liability for the government of Ariel Sharon, which has been struggling to justify its soldiers' conduct.

In recent days Israel has increased its efforts to tell its side of the story to counter what it says are "Palestinian lies".

Addressing an invited group of Israeli and foreign correspondents at an Israeli observation post on a ridge overlooking Jenin, Colonel Miri Esen, a senior Israeli intelligence analyst, said: "It is not a lovely figure, but out of 1,100 houses in the camp 100 were destroyed."

She said that the intensity of the fighting had been justified by the fierce level of resistance by militants from Islamic Jihad, Hamas and the al-Aqsa Martyrs' Brigade. "They had the choice of surrendering and they did not," she said.

She added that during the operation a number of labs, explosives caches and other materiel had been seized.

The colonel was speaking in front of a display of aerial photographs taken during the fighting which showed the slow demolition of the centre of the camp over several days. In the final picture, taken on April 13, a large area has been entirely cleared of buildings.

Also present at the briefing was Brigadier General Eyal Shlein, commander of the operation, who insisted that proper warnings were given to civilians before houses were bulldozed in the camp. "Every time we thought that there were civilians inside we would call out and cease the fighting. Then we would ask them to come out."

The Israeli account is at stark odds with that of Palestinian witnesses, who have described a frenzy of destruction that accelerated after the death of 13 Israeli soldiers caught in a booby-trapped house and raked by crossfire from snipers.

The presentation was in response to growing international condemnation and came barely an hour after the UN special envoy to the Middle East, Terje Roed-Larsen, had condemned the destruction and loss of life as militarily unjustifiable. Col Esen described claims that hundreds of civilians may have died in the camp during the fighting as "a lie".

Gesturing to the city spread out behind her, she said: "You can see that the city of Jenin still stands behind me."

Col Esen said journalists would be able to see the destruction for themselves when the Israeli pullout is completed. Justifying what she described as the "very harsh fighting", she characterised Jenin camp as "the suicide bombers' capital" - a phrase she said Israeli soldiers had claimed they saw used in documents found in the town.

The colonel added that during the operation 10 potential suicide bombers had been arrested with their explosives, having already made martyr videos for use after they were dead. "When people ask what the operation here was about, it was about 10 suicide bombers that did not explode,' she said.'

Given the nature of the conflict it has been impossible to independently verify these claims.

Commenting on the deaths within the camp, the colonel claimed that of the 25 bodies so far recovered, all but two had been of gunmen. This claim was also impossible to corroborate. Of those bodies, she said, four had been wearing explosive belts.

She added that some 100 of the 200 fighters that Israel suspected were in the camp had surrendered, which had led to the speculation on the Israeli side that upwards of 100 had been killed in the camp.

Col Esen said: "We are going on the assumption that there are more bodies buried in the rubble."

She added: "We are standing here saying everything is hunky-dory. It is not. It is not easy. The camp does not look great. We are not denying that the centre of the camp was destroyed.

"What we are saying is that it was the result of the heaviest urban house-to-house fighting that Israel has seen in 30 years."